Ghostly underwater art gallery breathes new life to sunken ship

By Sheena McKenzie, CNN

Updated 1235 GMT (2035 HKT) March 13, 2013

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Strike a pose – It's not a ghostly apparition, but one of the photographs by Viennese artist Andreas Franke, which was displayed aboard sunken ship USNS General Hoyt S.Vandenberg and only accessible to competent divers.

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Water works – After four months sitting at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the photos became discolored with salt stains and algae. "The sea life had created new images. It's very cool, they almost look like Polaroids," said Franke.

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Packing a punch – The pictures have now been displayed in a gallery on land; the Studios of Key West. "They're stunning photographs technically. But it also starts to veer into performance art," gallery director, Jed Dodd, said.

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Time travel – The 12 images all feature the Vandenberg, which was a U.S. military transport ship during World War Two. In the 1960s it was used by the Navy as a missile range vessel, and in 1998 it starred in the sci-fi film Virus.

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Brave new world – Sunk in 2009, the Vandenberg is now the second-largest artificial reef in the world, boasting a diverse range of marine animals and plant life.

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Divers' paradise – "If you're a diver and you see a gallery down there, it's absolutely unique, something you'd never expect. The cool thing is, the shots are done on the same boat they're hanging from," Franke said.

A new perspective – "One of the cool things with an underwater gallery is you're floating, so you can see the artworks from so many different angles," Franke said.

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Inspiring images – The Vandenberg's rich history gave Franke inspiration for his World War Two era scenes. A huge team of models, make-up artists and costume designers helped create the evocative photos in studio.

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Testing times – Despite being protected between two sheets of plexiglass and sealed with silicon in a steel frame, the images were not left completely untouched by the ocean.

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Interesting effect – "At the beginning we did one test on a smaller print and after two months it had no marks. But the bigger images were a little more flexible and more susceptible to water -- they're only 95% perfect but I'm still so happy with them," Franke said.

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Sea here – "What works so beautifully is how the water has seeped in -- it's almost as if the ocean has become a collaborative partner in the process," Dodd said.

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The fish fantastic – "It's a huge empty ship with fish swimming around -- at 27 meters below the surface, the sunlight is this beautiful blue green color. I shot the models in the studio with the same lens, so the images matched," Franke said.

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Work of art – Franke went diving on the Vandenberg six times, taking more than 1,000 photographs which he then whittled down to the final 12.

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Lights, camera, action – "I used an underwater camera to shoot open locations where I thought I could add people in," Franke said.

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Ocean is key – "For a place like Key West, where you're never more than a few blocks from the beach, people have a very special relationship with the water," Dodd said.

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Baroque Barbados – Franke's latest project features 12 images on the sunken SS Stavronikita, off the coast of Barbados.

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Eerie imagery – The artist was inspired by the Caribbean country's history as an English settlement and the abundance of coral. "The European style fits better with the yellow tones and growth," he said.

The retro scenes were then superimposed over the top of the Vandenberg, creating an eerie underwater world frozen in time.

"It's like bringing the Vandenberg back to life," Franke said.

"It's a huge empty ship with fish swimming around -- at 27 meters below the surface, the sunlight is this beautiful blue green color. I shot the models in the studio with the same lens, so the images matched."

Around 10,000 divers visited the underwater exhibition and now, after four months sitting on the ocean floor, the unique pictures have come up for air, displayed in their first exhibition on land.

Despite being protected between two sheets of plexiglass and sealed with silicon in a steel frame, the images were not left completely untouched by the ravishes of the ocean.

The all-pervasive sea water still left its mark, seeping into the frames and discoloring them with salt stains and algae.

"When we brought the photographs to the surface we found all this growth on them -- it's a third dimension on top," Franke said.

"The sea life had created new images. It's very cool, they almost look like Polaroids."